• Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!

Charging genie scissor lift

Nathanparnaby

Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
9
Location
Ringwood
Hi, I have a genie 20-46 scissor lift that doesn’t hold anywhere near the amount of charge it use to, I’ve had all the batteries load tested and they tell me there fine... any ideas why this may be? I’m also charging it off a generator could this possible be the problem? The generators running long enough to charge it fully at least the light indicators showing charged. Thanks in advanced for any help. Also not sure if this thread is in the right sub category.
 

John Canfield

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
431
Location
Texas
Occupation
Ranching
My electric Genie scissor lift has a built in battery charger, is your lift battery powered or fuel?
 

John Canfield

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
431
Location
Texas
Occupation
Ranching
My charger broke and I replaced it with a better three stage version. What is your charger current? I assume you are using the built in charger.
 

Nathanparnaby

Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
9
Location
Ringwood
Honestly don’t know the current is, I will check this out. Yep just using the charger that came with the machine. Why did you upgrade to a 3 stage charger?
 

MarshallPowerGen

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2017
Messages
442
Location
Northwestern USA
Occupation
Generator Technician & Equipment Mechanic
Make sure to top off the water in the batteries, they can only charge up so far if they're low and the plates are exposed. We usually hook a meter to each battery and check the voltage drop as we raise the lift and check for any that goes lower than the rest. Clean any corrosion from your connections, then look into the battery charger if you continue having issues.

It's sort of the oversimplified version of troubleshooting at my work, but it seems to find any issues with our lifts.
 

Nathanparnaby

Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
9
Location
Ringwood
Water levels are all fine cables are ok we get them serviced regularly. Might try the voltage drop when we raise them... thanks.
 

John Canfield

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
431
Location
Texas
Occupation
Ranching
Honestly don’t know the current is, I will check this out. Yep just using the charger that came with the machine. Why did you upgrade to a 3 stage charger?
A 3 stage charger will charge faster and when the batteries are fully charged, it will float charge - or keep the batteries topped off. Batteries will self discharge over time and a cheap charger might not properly float charge resulting in cooking them.
I think my Genie has six 6V batteries connected in series for 24V - if that's your setup you should measure a couple of volts more than 24V if the charger is working. How old are the batteries? Are you sure each battery was properly load tested?
 

Nathanparnaby

Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
9
Location
Ringwood
Mine have 4 6v batteries I’ve had them replaced in the last 12 months but the scissor was less than 5 years old, I was told should be getting 10 years out of the batteries too? I’m fairly confident they were load tested properly I know the 6v batteries Are more difficult to load test but the guy seemed to know what he was talking about... I use the scissors every day so the batteries shouldn’t get to much time to drain sitting there. What did they slug you for a 3 stage charger?
 

Zewnten

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2018
Messages
553
Location
Earth
We had the skylifts by jlg and they wouldn't charge unless the stop button was pushed down, something about making sure guys weren't dragging cords around the job site. So no offense but are you following all of the owner's manual procedure for charging? If you are Genie is fairly helpful with troubleshooting and has free electrical schematics online
 

willie59

Administrator
Joined
Dec 21, 2008
Messages
13,363
Location
Knoxville TN
Occupation
Service Manager
A couple of things I'd add, are you using proper GC-5 batteries in the machine? If yes, as for load testing, you can't load test those batteries with automotive type resistor coil testers, those batteries will laugh at those testers, you have to using a carbon pile or equivalent load tester to suck the juice out of those batteries. And for the charger, yes, the 3 stage is better, especially if you don't use the machine daily. The three stage chargers will do the bulk stage, bringing the voltage up rapidly at a high amp rate, then at about 85% charge they switch to absorption stage, reducing the amp rate to gently bring it to full charge, then they switch to float to maintain full charge. Most factory fitted chargers only do bulk stage and absorption stage. Once it gets fully charge they turn off, they don't do maintain float, have to unplug it and plug it back in to maintain charge with those type chargers. If you use the machine daily and recharge daily those chargers will work fine. But if it isn't used daily and does storage/idle time, 3 stage chargers are a better choice.
 

Nathanparnaby

Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
9
Location
Ringwood
Yep that’s what I was told about load testing 6v batteries, took it to a specific service place for that. They said they were fine which should be the case as they aren’t that old... we do use them daily and have just started charging them up every night we weren’t previously as we were getting 3-4 days of use out of them. But now we find by end of the first day when we run them back onto the trailer they die (go to turtle speed) and even after running them off the trailer in the morning they lose one side of the bars on battery indicator I know these aren’t 100% accurate but does seem like they are only getting charged to 80% or something. I’m just wondering if possible whilst charging off the generator it’s not getting that second stage of charging ? Thanks for your help.
 

willie59

Administrator
Joined
Dec 21, 2008
Messages
13,363
Location
Knoxville TN
Occupation
Service Manager
Well, that's interesting information indeed. My first thoughts, never run a battery machine "for days" before recharge, always plug up the charger at the end of every shift for daily driver machines. For every state of discharge, many days, the charger will respond with high amp recharge. It's better to recharge wet batteries on daily use machines at the end of every shift, charger will select a lower amp juice up. But in your present case, it sounds like your charger is faulty and not working properly to charge the batteries. But I can't say for sure since you're using a generator to power the charger. Automatic load sensing chargers are weird animals that can do some strange things.
 

Nathanparnaby

Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
9
Location
Ringwood
Ye perhaps, think I will just keep charging them up every night as long as I’m getting a full working day out of it it’s not really a problem but running a generator every night to charge them isn’t the most cost effective way to charge them haha.
 

John Canfield

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
431
Location
Texas
Occupation
Ranching
Willie is spot-on with his explanation and advice. Consistently deeply discharging any battery like those is a guarantee of a short lifespan, 3-5 years at most I'll guess - don't do it. Recharge every night. I think my after-market Genie 3 stage charger was $350-400.
 

MarshallPowerGen

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2017
Messages
442
Location
Northwestern USA
Occupation
Generator Technician & Equipment Mechanic
Also curious if you've put a meter to your Generator to check the Volts/Hz output and what your battery charger shows as output when it's hooked up? If the generator is running proper frequency, but with low voltage output it'll run stuff like power tools, but can cause some strange stuff to happen with chargers and anything with a board.
 

John Shipp

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2015
Messages
641
Location
England
Occupation
forestry contracting
MarshallPowerGen, your point about frequencies / volts is what I was thinking reading this thread, your comment about power tools running fine but battery chargers not performing well is exactly what I have found with different generators we've used.

Battery chargers seem sensitive to tired generators or ones that need the revs raised to get the volts up, but also putting the Hz up from 50-60 to something like 70. I don't know why, but the battery charger doesn't put out a high enough voltage when this is case. = very slow / no charging.

Daily charging very necessary, you only want to be using the cream on the top, not drinking the whole bottle.
 

Nathanparnaby

Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
9
Location
Ringwood
Thanks everyone really appreciate the feed back thinking of buying a bigger generator possible the saber 3300. seems to be fairly safe to charge phones and laptops and such hopefully will be fine for the scissors... and will be charging them every night.
 

John Shipp

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2015
Messages
641
Location
England
Occupation
forestry contracting
For battery charging using a generator I have stayed away from intelligent chargers because they have a long cycle and I don't want a generator running all through night just to trickle charge. Instead I manually watch the bulk absorption stage on and off for a couple of hours, until it is mostly back up, then generator is switched off. I've got round the topping up trickle charge by rigging up some solar panels which do a great job most of the time. This has worked well in my application as although leaving generator on all night would be easier, the noise that comes with it means it wasn't an option.
 
Top